To do so, open the Play Store. On the left menu, tap Play Protect and you’ll see its settings page. Toggle the slider for Scan device for security threats. You can also Improve harmful app detection by sending unknown apps to Google, but this is unnecessary.

3. Automatic Screen Brightness

Chances are that your phone brightness is never quite right. Turn it on in a dark room, and it’s so bright it blinds you. But when you go outside, it’s impossible to see anything because the screen is too dim.

Android’s automatic brightness isn’t perfect, but it will keep you from fiddling with the brightness so much. To enable it, head to Settings > Display and enable Adaptive brightness.

4. Smart Store for Freeing Up Space

Running out of free space is inconvenient, as finding old apps, photos, and other content to delete takes time.

But thanks to a new feature in Android Oreo, you can automatically remove old photos from your device. Since photos are often one of the biggest storage hogs, this can keep you from seeing that “Low Storage” message so often.

To enable it, visit Settings > Storage and make sure you’ve enabled the Smart Storage slider. Tap it to choose how old the photos and videos are that it cleans up: 30, 60, or 90 days.

5. Automatically Join Wi-Fi Networks

Using Wi-Fi saves you from consuming mobile data, and there’s free Wi-Fi available in many places. It thus makes sense to flip a setting so that your phone connects to nearby Wi-Fi networks when available.

You can do so by opening Settings > Network & Internet and tapping Wi-Fi. Below your list of Wi-Fi networks, choose Wi-Fi preferences.

If you enable Turn on Wi-Fi automatically, Wi-Fi will re-enable itself when you’re near your home network. Turn on Connect to open networks to automatically join “high-quality” public networks.

So you don’t have to open your VPN app and connect every time you reboot your phone, you can enable Android’s Always-on VPN setting. This does just what it sounds like—you’ll find it at Settings > Network & Internet > VPN. Tap the gear next to your VPN, and make sure to toggle the Always-on VPN slider. You can even choose to Block connections without VPN, which prevents you from going online without it.

You can enable it at will, but if you use Do Not Disturb at the same time every day, you should set up a schedule so it runs automatically. Open Settings > Sound > Do Not Disturb preference to find these options. At the top, you can change a few options about how Do Not Disturb runs.

Below, you’ll find Automatic rules. Your phone includes a few templates to get you started, so you can modify those or create your own. They let you choose what days the mode should run, at what times, and what notifications get through. If you create an Event schedule, you can even set up Do Not Disturb for events on your calendar.

More Advanced Ways to Automate Android

We’ve discussed seven basic settings you can enable in Android for convenient automation. But if you want to go further, you’ll find a variety of apps and services.

MacroDroid is everything Tasker isn’t. It sports a much cleaner and more pleasant interface, and doesn’t require root access for most of its functions. This doesn’t mean it’s limited, however. A friendly first-time wizard and easy-to-understand icons hide a lot of power that you can dive into if you like.

How Do You Automate Android?

Now you know the best settings to let your Android device handle itself without you having to do any work. Less time fiddling in menus means you have the freedom to find new apps, enjoy old favorites, or do something away from your phone.

I turned on automatic brightness back on my old Nexus 5 and could never get Android to fully turn it off ever again. This was also a problem on my iPhone 5s. Was it an issue with the screens those devices use or with the OSes? And has it been fixed?

I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S8+ with Android 8.1.x Oreo, and I'd rather not have that stupid distracting brightness shift even in environments where the ambient lighting isn't changing perceptibly. I'd rather risk the minor increase in battery usage as I've done for the past couple years.

In their rush to get new versions out, developers tend to skimp on testing, turning their users into beta testers.

Firefox has become especially bad: they've run out of new functionality to add, so now they're doing radical user interface tweaks. Every time you start it up to do a quick web access, you run the risk that it'll waste a couple of minutes downloading, and present you with a new UI where many of the actions you've become familiar with no longer work. And, as an added bonus, it may break one or more of the plug-ins you depend on.

The worst though, is Samsung. Some app flipped the auto-update switch on without my noticing. When I turned on the phone's WiFi to check on a WiFi router, it downloaded a new version of the built-in browser that's completely incompatible with the old one, and routes all my Web access through one of their sites. Where, thanks to recent American law changes, they can collect and sell my history without my consent.

Plus, its UI is not only radically different from the old one, but also doesn't conform to Android standards.

And my phone carrier informs me that there's no way to undo the update using normal user tools. Except MAYBE to do a factory reset, and somehow prevent the update from being re-installed.

I've never had any luck getting calendar events to trigger Do Not Disturb on my phones. I've had to resort to using IFTTT to mute my phone during meetings and other calendar events. It works pretty well, but it would be nice if the "feature" built into my phone actually worked, instead of resorting to a web service / app combo to do the same thing.

I do use the Time settings of Do Not Disturb to mute my phone at different times during the week and on the weekend and it's wonderful.

I have a Pixel 2 XL with auto update enabled and every time I plug it in EVERYTHING comes to a screeching halt for about 2 minutes. It's especially annoying when you get into your car and want to start navigating with Google maps or play some music.

Ben is a Deputy Editor and the Sponsored Post Manager at MakeUseOf. He holds a B.S. in Computer Information Systems from Grove City College, where he graduated Cum Laude and with Honors in his major. He enjoys helping others and is passionate about video games as a medium.